Mistakes
by purple is my color
Summary: Charlie reflects on what he did wrong to make his little girl do things that she never should have done. My first story! Please read and reveiw. I do not own Twilight!


I had just gotten home from work. As I glanced around my empty house I heaved a big sigh. It was so _empty _so _lifeless _without her here. I walked into the living room and flicked on the T.V., but I wasn't really watching it. I was thinking about Bella. Reflecting on all the things I let my little girl do that I knew weren't good for her.

All of my problems started with that _boy. _She was the perfect daughter until _he_ came along. Always went to bed at a reasonable hour, did her chores and homework. She even cooked dinner every night.

But when she met him it's like she changed. That first night I met him I knew something about him was off, just not right, but I kept all of my concerns to myself. I didn't want to be the reason her first date went wrong. That was my first mistake.

When she came home that night crying I had a feeling it had something to do with him. She told me that she couldn't put down anymore roots here. She didn't want to end up stuck here like her mom. That hurt a lot, but I let her go. That was my second mistake.

A few days later I got a call saying Bella had fallen down some stairs and out a window on her way to see Edward. It was a very believable story; and I didn't trust it for a second. I mean, how do you trip _down_ the stairs on your way _up_?

When Bella came home I just pretended that nothing had happened. I even let her continue to see that boy. I figured that as long as she was happy nothing else mattered. Her being happy was my top priority. That was my third mistake.

All through the summer everything was fine. Bella was happier than I'd ever seen her, and that made me happy although I really didn't like how close she and Edward were getting. But, right after her eighteenth birthday things changed. You could feel the tension between them.

Then one day I came home and there was a note from Bella saying she had went on a walk with Edward. I was glad. As much as I felt something was weird about Edward I didn't want to see Bella unhappy.

When Bella didn't come home for dinner I got worried. She _always _came home for dinner or called if she wasn't going to be here. I called the Cullens' place thinking that maybe there was a change of plans and she would be over there, but no one answered. I called for Bella in the woods; maybe they had gone away from the trail and gotten lost. Again… no answer.

I called Billy and asked him to send some boys down from La Push. We were going to have to search for Bella. I called some more men from around town to help us look for her; I figured the more people looking for her the sooner she would be found.

When Sam found Bella and I saw her I nearly cried. Her eyes held no emotion, no life. They were just blank. I carried her in the house and set her on the couch. Dr. Gerandy came to check on her. He told me that the Cullens had just left that day with very little advance warning, and moved to L.A. I couldn't believe him! He had moved away without even letting her know that he would be going.

I had to watch my only daughter slip into a catatonic state. Not eating, not sleeping, just _being_. For months I watched her this way until I called Renee to take her to go live with her. Maybe she'd get better if she got away from here. That was one reason; I also just didn't want to be the on if she had to go to the hospital or something like that.

Then Renee came. We started to pack. Putting her clothes into bags and gathering up anything important. But that all came to an end when Bella figured out what we were doing. She came alive with a vengeance. Throwing her clothes around and screaming that we couldn't make her leave. That was when she finally broke down crying. I had figured that maybe things would get better then.

She did seem to get better, but she was still not back to her former self. She was like a zombie. Doing everything she knew she was supposed to do, but still devoid of life.

Then she started to hang out with Jacob Black. I noticed a real difference then. She some color in her cheeks and some light in her eyes. But she still wasn't quite back to the girl that had come to live with me at the beginning of the year. I was still watching her closely, now I was much more confident that she would get better, that things would go back to the way they used to be.

Then out of the blue Alice Cullen appeared at our house. As much as I loved Alice I was worried about what her visit would do to Bella, but I couldn't send her home. Her visit made Bella happy, so I _had_ to let her stay. That was my fourth mistake.

A couple days later I came home from one of my best friend's _funeral_ to a very vague note saying that Edward – The boy who had broken her into little pieces – was in trouble and she and Alice had went flying off to L.A to help him.

I went nearly out of my mind for _three days _while my little girl was missing. When she finally came home it was in the arms of that_ Cullen. _I couldn't believe that he actually had the nerve to show his face here. I was even angrier that it seemed Bella had accepted him back with open arms. I let him take Bella up to her bed, but when he came back down I told him he was never to set foot in my house again.

After Bella woke up she fed me some story that I hardly heard because my senses had shut down after hearing the words "jump" and "cliff" in the same sentence. I told Bella that she wasn't to see Edward again. We argued until she said that if she had to she would move out. After that I conceded and set up visiting hours in which he was allowed in the house. That was my fifth mistake.

A couple of weeks later Jacob came by on a motorcycle and told me it was Bella's. I nearly had a heart attack at the thought of her on that death trap. When Bella got home I yelled about the motorcycle until I ran out of steam. I just didn't know what to do with her anymore. I was at the end of my rope.

Some time later I let Bella off of her grounding under the condition that she spent some time with some of her friend_ other _than the Cullens. She agreed. Bella started to hang out with her other friends and even went to go see Jacob. I wished fervently that she would see how much better for her he was than Cullen and choose him.

Things got better, Bella graduated and she was spending more time with Jacob. One night she came home from La Push with Jacob and a seemingly broken hand. She said that she had punched Jacob because he had kissed her. That was hilarious to me and I thought that Jacob was doing a good job of convincing her to fall for him instead. She called Edward and after a short confrontation between him and Jacob in front of the house, he took her for his father to take a look at her hand.

A short while later I got a feeling – like some of the things Bella was telling me weren't true. But I felt better believing the lies than trying to find the truth. I felt like the truth would be too much for me to handle. That was my sixth mistake.

Then Bella came home from another one of her many sleepovers with Alice with a ring on her hand. She was engaged to him! We had a huge fight and in the end she decided to move out. The last thing I said to her was a lie. I told her that if she was going to go through with this she might as well just move out and never come back. That was my seventh and final mistake.

I pulled myself from my memories and back into the present. I glanced at the clock and it was already ten. I trudged up the stairs and into bed. The last thought I had before I slipped into unconsciousness was the phrase _lucky number seven_. Yeah, right.

I actually posted this one shot a long time ago. I was just reading over it and decided that it could use some more editing. So I edited! And thirty minutes later this is what I had. I made a lot more changes than I actually meant to but I think the story is much better than it was before. So tell me what you think about it. It would make me _really _happy!


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